Dark Interval is a campaign mod created as an alternate take on Half-Life 2, incorporating selected early story drafts and cut content. We're creating new maps, assets, characters and story beats to fill in the blanks, and to build a coherent story of its own. The mod is released in episodes, the most recent being Dark Interval: Part I - an intro chapter to the bigger picture.
Awesome!
Wow.....
To say the least this is beyond impressive, especially for a seemingly one man project. Not only does it capture the atmosphere and art style of the original Half-Life 2 Universe, but in my personal opinion, brings the original story to life in a way that no other Leaked Half-Life 2 creations have done. Overall I'd say that anyone slightly interested in mod, Chapter one is well worth the time to try!
Dark Interval feels like a completely new game. Amazing atmosphere. The attention to the details is top notch.
Compared to initial demo release, the new version has a lot of improvements. The main and biggest improvements are choreographed scenes, proper introduction sequence and some nice gameplay similiar to Valve's style.
What makes this mod stand out is that besides using Valve's scrapped storyline and concepts the rest in Dark Interval is completely new content never seen in other Beta mods before.
Graphically this mod is amazing but oh my god the level design is confusing and boring. I love the parts where you get the immolater and actually play the game but there is so much aimless walking around without any weapons. Even when you do get weapons the level design holds this back so much. Hopefully in future updates this mod can fix these issues but at this point it just feels like it wasted my time. I somehow managed to get a gun before I think I was supposed to but imagining going through even more of the game just walking around is boring. I understand that they want to set the atmosphere and it is very well established however there is a reason HL2's prologue is as short as it is but even the length of that is criticized by some.
Half Life 2 on sleeping pill. Extremely linear, terribly empty, very slow. The maps are very large for no reason, since there is usually nothing to do inside them but roam around looking for the passage to a next very empty map. Not sure why the mod is designed this way, but yeah, it's just very boring.
Pros: some new weapons and new enemies, but you barely get to use or face them. Not sure why either.
Dark Interval in my opinion, isn't a good mod. It's not malicious nor terrible it's just unfun. During the first chapters of the mod you lose your weapons 4 times when you get attached to them. The city and xen-infested areas are simply to large and lacks enemies to engage with.
However, I must say the art direction, modeling and art direction they did with this mod is stellar. The Combine-March in City-17 was one of my favorite environmental-storytelling set-pieces in the mod rivaling that of the HECU's arrival in HL1.
Another good thing I believe they did is the 'time-lock' sections where Gordon perceives everything as motionless and almost pre-war like era. While I'm not sure what this means story-wise I hypothesis it is about the PTSD from the first game, just a thought.
If half of the maps were cut-down, more enemies and letting you keep your weapons, I believe this mod could easily be one of the best HL2 Beta Mods. Again, this isn't a bad mod, just a mod that needs readjusting.
The mod is pretty good
It's a really great experience. I love how you guys decided to use both Beta concepts and HL2 vanilla stuff, and it all surprisingly works. While some people didn't particularly enjoy the calm sections, I did for the most part, as it's atmosphere is far better than what HL2 offered. Though there are problems, mainly with some objectives not being clear enough, like the train station security door or when you have to throw a chair at a window to break it. Also, the Vortigaunt voice actor REALLY needs a new microphone. Everything else though - I really enjoyed it! I really hope this mod will finish and we'll be able to play the Half-Life 2 that never was. Cheers.
I am just Amazed with the level of quality that this mod has. Amount of effort that's been put into creating maps, atmoshpere, the soundtrack, everything fits so well.
Yet, no matter how much I love this mod, I still have some issues.
For a start, Gordon without his iconic H.E.V. suit takes little to no damage from zombie swings and bullets, while you would expect him to be more exposed without protection. Some city levels feel really Unnecessarily long, even though you still can maintain that feeling of spacious and wide "beta streets" and not have needless parts at the same time (I'm talking especially about Manhack Arcade exterior) The HUD is quite unintuitive. Maybe make it flash red when player takes damage and add stamina meter below crosshair. Not many, but there are some broken scripts. You have to work more on those in the future.
Oh, and I really liked that one moment from previous versions when cops could kill you if you cross into their "investigation" area near apartment blocks.
Despite all the pros and cons, this project has the opportunity to be something bigger than just a mod, really. Right now, it is the most reliable mod about old storyline. I hope you have enough energy and effort to properly finish this mod. All the best to the development team.
Good luck and Bon Voyage!
good recreation hoping for more detailed assets in future but excellent manhack aracde needs work though but can't wait for more keep up the good work